Ascent Trip Report

The obvious access to Klicker from Walla Walla is via Mill Creek Rd. It appears on first glance that Mill Creek Rd branches off of US-12 a few miles E of Walla Walla, but I didn't look at Delorme closely enough: Mill Creek Rd originates in Walla Walla as Isaacs Ave, and never quite intersects US-12. I didn't notice this discrepancy until after US-12 peels away to the N, near gravel Harbert Rd, which I took southbound to Mill Creek Rd.

Once on Mill Creek Rd (however you get onto it), take note of the following side roads, all on the N side: Buroker Rd, then 1.0 mile later Vineyard Rd, then an additional 1.5 miles later Meiners Rd. 1.5 miles after Meiners Rd I turned L on Blue Creek Rd, which is paved but narrow. Set your odometer to 0 at this point. After 1.1 miles I turned R on Klicker Mtn Rd, which is unpaved. At 1.5 miles and 1.6 miles is a pair of switchbacks, first L then R. At 2.4 miles is a house on the R. There are some No Trespassing signs nearby, but they don't appear to apply to the road (which later enters a national forest). At 2.6 miles I went L at a fork. At 3.2 miles the road became encrusted with slabs of water ice and my non-4WD truck did not have the traction to continue any further, so I parked and began hiking. Elevation here was about 2800 feet.

As I continued hiking up the road, the slabs of ice became several inches thick and covered the entire road in places. Sometimes I had to walk along the berm on the side of the road to avoid the ice, which would have meant an inevitable slip and fall. There were several forks, and in each case I took the branch that stayed close to the crest of the ridge. In most cases the branches rejoined anyway. At the junction at 3860' (just W of the center of section 5), the county-maintained road ends at a gate. Near junction 3870 is a structure that looks like a house but it's unclear if it's used as such; it may be used for agricultural purposes. Several hundred feet beyond this point, the highest ground is in open pine forest to the L of where the road tops out.

The weather was foggy, with low visibility, an inch or so of snow on the ground, and the trees were covered with a frosty coat of snow. It was an appropriate setting for this Christmas day 2009.